𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐉𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑⁰¹ʰᵉᵐᵐⁱⁿᵍˢ✓

epilogueㅤㅤㅤ──𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒

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"Luke, where are we going?" Clem asks persistently for the 5th time tonight, her hands carefully gripping my wrist as I hold my palms over her eyes to close them.

I lead her through the grassy grounds and try my best to squint through the dark, the phone flashlight on my pocket not stable enough to be a reliable guide. But we walk on anyway.

I managed to drive Clem out, making her endure an hour ride into the more rural parts of my home, where I hope to show her some evening stars.

Taking her to Sydney again definitely made my parents excited to spend time with her. Mom seems to hang onto Clem's every word whenever they start talking about art and photography, to the point where I start to feel like the third wheel. I'm happy for them, though.

I let out a laugh as she almost stumbles on some shrubs, and she slaps the top of my hand and whines.

"Okay, alright," I say, slowing down as I look around to find a nice spot to sit on with her. "You remember, four years ago, we sat on that rooftop?" I ask, leaving one hand on her eyes as the other grabs my phone to shine the light on the grass.

"Four years - don't say it like that," She follows with some laughter, her lashes fluttering against my palm. "Makes me feel old,"

Scoffing, I give a shrug, taking her phone and lighting it up and letting it sit by mine on the grass, creating enough light for me to see clearly. "Too bad, babe. It was indeed four years ago. We're older,"

She gives a sigh. "So supportive. I love you. Please tell me what we're doing in wherever we are or I will choke you,"

A smirk comes to me. "I mean, it's for free, why don't you just -"

"I swear to god, if you're smirking right now -"

"Okay! I'm not, I'm not," I raise my free hand and laugh before letting my other hand off her eyes. "Just keep'em close, okay?"

She nods, now searching to hold my hand for guidance. "Am I supposed to be scared, 'cause I feel like -"

"Miss, I'm trying to be romantic," I answer quickly as I kneel down on the grass, pulling her down with me. "Come, just sit with me,"

Carefully, she kneels before crossing her legs, my hand still gripped strongly in hers.

"You can open them," I whisper, watching as she slowly opens her eyes to me, a small smile relieving her strength on my hand. "You literally had no reason to be stressed, I was just -"

"Well, I'm sorry if your idea of 'romantic' is kinda stressful," She replies sharply, grinning as she looks left and right at our phones. "So... are we gonna pray or something?"

I let out a laugh before leaning back, letting my hands support me. "Okay, so that time when we were on the rooftop and saying how much we missed stars and stuff,"

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted to show you the ones we have here," I beam a smile before looking up, immediately seeing the spots of light in the sky. They're far brighter than the stars in New York or LA, and I didn't know I missed them so much.

That evening of staying up on the rooftop seems so vivid in my head. Every second of the memory plays like a golden film. Perhaps it was the image of her engrained in my head or just the fact that that was the first night I knew I needed to know her more, to hear her speak.